Events

The development of next generation sequencing technology has led to rapid advances in microbiome study. The Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience and the Pan-African Bioinformatics Network for H3Africa will offer a short-course on the bioinformatics of analysing the microbiome. The course will give an overview of conducting a microbiome study, present some of the most important techniques, and will include hands-on use of key tools. The course will cover analysis both using both 16S RNA gene sequences and shotgun sequencing.

Lecturers: 
Ami Bhatt, Departments of Medicine and Genetics, Stanford University Gerrit Botha, Computational Biology Division, University of Cape Town

The Transformation Dialogues form a core component of the annual events for the Office, and are intended to provide the University community with a space in which to engage on pertinent Transformation issues. The dialogues are conceptualised as lunchtime conversations in a space which is safe, free of judgement and respectful of differences.

Recognising the potential need to start off on a clean slate, the theme for the first dialogue is “What is transformation and why do we need it?” and it is hoped that this space will bring together multiple perspectives that will effectively take the University closer to realising its goal of a unified Institutional Culture, driven by a collective belief in what Transformation in the University is meant to be.

The dialogue will include presentations from various sectors in the University community. Since this is intended as a lunchtime conversation, these presentations will be kept as brief as possible in order to devote the bulk of the time to fruitful and respectful engagement with the audience. Finally, it is the hope that this dialogue will serve as the starting point for several dynamic and productive conversations throughout the year.

Please note: This event will be recorded.

The play is directed by Dr Samuel Ravengai, a senior Lecturer and Head of Theatre and Performance. Samuel Ravengai revived No Good Friday in the Wits Downstairs Theatre in 2014 to much public acclaim and directed an Africanised Vumani Oedipus at the Market Theatre in 2015. He has directed over twenty works in Cape Town and Zimbabwe.  Although Marechera’s other plays have been produced elsewhere, not many have tackled his absurd plays. We take up that challenge and make history by being the first to produce the work in a professional space.                                                                                                                  

Dambudzo Marechera’s work is normally regarded as modernist. His version of modernism is absurdism. Marechera’s two plays, The Alley and Killwatch are, arguably, the only absurdist plays he has written. The theatre of the absurd is intent on making its audience aware of humanity’s precarious and mysterious position in a world characterised by the decline of religious belief. This theatre does so through a non-plot based story and a pattern of poetic images that produces an essence.

Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle that ended with a ceasefire in 1979 was one of the bloodiest and most prolonged wars in the world. Dambudzo Marechera derived his inspiration from the aftermath of this war compelling Marechera to investigate its psychological ramifications that manifested as madness, hallucinations, insomnia and so on. Marechera drew on the experiences he witnessed, in the streets and wrote his absurd plays, The Alley and Killwatch that will be presented as a single production.

His characters in The ALLEY, Robin and Rhodes are outcasts that society has neglected and forgotten. They stick together to while away time and so there is no logical life purpose which one would find in a traditional realist play. Robin mental illness, a Marechera fascination manifests in hallucinations, violence and a fixation on the past while Rhodes has a milder version of madness compounded by his alcoholism. These characters have lost all sense of time.

The Alley depicts characters that fought on the opposite side of the Rhodesian conflict. Rhodes was a medic in one of Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army’s (ZANLA) platoons while Robin was party of Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Forces. These two characters are now tramps living in a Harare alley. By the end of the play, the two characters, Robin and Rhodes are exactly in the same situation that they were at the beginning of the play. The problem has not been solved. There has been no catharsis. The answer to the questions raised is one play with a series of poetic images that complement each other, but don’t form a discursive narrative.

If the rules of good playwriting demand that a play develops a story/plot, in Killwatch, there is no story. If a good play is judged by the revelation of characters who go through an emotional journey that reveals their character traits, in Killwatch this subtlety of characterisation and motivation is absent. If a good story develops on the basis of revealing the backstory about characters, Killwatch does the opposite or if a good story is judged by the depiction of a coherent theme which is neatly exposed and resolved at the end, Killwatch has no beginning and ending.

The whole play, Killwatch, is a transgression of realist/naturalist rules. On the surface, Marechera seems to present before his audience a realist world. However, in this seemingly realistic world, we are confronted by a set of characters that are mysterious. They are metaphysical beings of a nature between deities and humans. They inhabit both our world and that of the spirit world. Furthermore, the two watchmen do not have a past and a future. The playwright does not provide any information about their past and the reasons why they have to be in a café, park and cemetery. Marechera does not explain their actions, thoughts and feelings. Everything happens by impulse. The watchmen derive their pleasure from watching the grief of others in the cemetery. They are sadistic characters. The questions raised are not answered. 

Although the plays, The Alley and Killwatch, are entirely dialogue based, the sum total of the utterances does not develop a story at all. The interaction of these characters is in fact a single poetic image to underline the fact that we live in a world of tragedy that we seem to escape. It is Marechera’s response to the events of his time characterised by a brutal liberation war and the subsequent civil war with ended in 1987. Because nothing is certain, we deal with versions of truths as opposed to a single truth. This uncertainty is celebrated throughout the plays. 

Wits Theatre and Wits School of Arts/Division of Theatre and Performance 

PRODUCTION: THE ALLEY and KILLWATCH
VENUE: Wits East Campus, Braamfontein
SEASON:  24 April – 29 April 2017
RUNNING TIME: 60 minutes
BOOKING: www.webtickets.co.za

Full price = R80.00; discount price = R55.00 (students, pensioners and Wits staff).
Tickets are available at the door. Full price = R85.00; discount price = R60.00 (students, pensioners and Wits staff).
Wits Tix R10:00 online and R15:00 at the door

 

Brown is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and currently a Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. He has published widely on foreign aid, democratisation, African politics and political violence.

Gqubule is the Director of the Centre for Economic Development and Transformation and the country’s leading commentator on BEE in the mining industry. Gqubule  will discuss how far the mining sector has fallen short of its ownership and other Charter targets, the issues raised by the current standoff over the ‘once empowered, always empowered principle’, and the prospects for its meaningful transformation over the next decade. 

Respondents - Carol Paton (Business Day) and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi (Economic Freedom Fighters)

There is a rich mine of literature on spatial exclusions due to race, in South African cities, however few studies have focused on the gendered spatial experiences of women and more particularly, mothers.

This seminar based on research from the GCRO explores the spatial dynamics of mothers in Johannesburg: how mothers navigate their and their families’ daily lives; the challenges that they face; their routes, supports and efforts that typify their lives.

The research shows that the spatial injustices of the past and new inequalities impact the everyday movements and practices of women. In addition, these spatial practices are influenced by a form of moral geography, which result in compromises and sacrifices for both mother and child. Exploring the spatial geographies of the mothers provides valuable insights and exposes the depth of spatial inequalities and poor urban management in new ways.

 

Wits staff members may request complimentary tickets for this match from the Bidvest Wits offices in Sturrock Park, near the Wits University Sports Administration offices, on working weekdays between 09:00 and 16:00. Please contact the office in advance and specify how many tickets you would like to receive for this match. Tickets are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Students are selected following a rigorous audition round judged by the music performance staff.

This ensures that only the best students are part of the concert, with extensive preparation and rehearsals guaranteeing a high standard of performance across two major musical genres. This concert provides a professional platform for these students to engage with a responsive public audience.

It also serves as a showcase for the young talent and high standard of teaching provided at Wits University, encouraging potential young audience members to find out more about possible careers in music.

The annual Motswako concert has proven to be such a hit in previous years that this year it will be in two parts. Part 2 will take place in the second semester.

26 April - Siphephelo Ndlovu